5 Care Tips: Liver
SurfUpVector/Getty
The liver is the biggest organ in the human body other than the skin. Follow five care tips to keep your body’s key detoxifying organ the healthiest it can be.
Your liver is a large, powerful organ located just under your right-side ribs. In tandem with other detoxifying organs, it processes toxins that come in through your food and drink and the air you breathe, helping your body stay balanced. In general, you don’t need to do a lot of practices like cleanses or detoxifying body postures—this wonderful organ’s whole job is to detoxify you!
1. Eat For Liver Health
Foods that support the liver include:
- Lemon water, especially before meals. It increases stomach acid, making digestion easier.
- Garlic.
- Beta-carotene rich foods like carrots and beets.
- Fiber-rich foods like kale, avocado, and flaxseed, which help your body remove toxins from your gut.
The liver is the biggest organ in the human body other than the skin.
2. Have a Cup of Joe
Coffee contains more than 1,000 chemical compounds, so all its beneficial or harmful effects are not yet completely understood. That said, several studies have shown that drinking coffee every day helps support your liver in avoiding fat and collagen buildup and may even help prevent liver cancer. In addition, the body creates a compound called paraxanthine, which slows the growth of scar tissue in the liver, when it digests caffeine.
3. Resolve Anger
In Chinese medicine, the liver is associated with the emotion of anger. Anger is a yang emotion, which means it is hot and wants to move. When we don’t express our anger appropriately, it can build up heat in our bodies in the form of inflammation. Adjustments to the diet can reduce inflammation in the liver, but working with emotions, especially anger, may be another important key in supporting liver health, both physically and energetically.
4. Drink Dandelion Tea
Dandelion has a host of health benefits for your liver. It has a much-studied polysaccharide that helps the liver produce bile and filter out the toxic chemicals that you ingest. It also contains a compound called taraxasterol that helps regulate white blood cells and soothes inflammation. Dandelion tea also has plenty of vitamin C to support the immune system.
The liver doesn’t just detoxify. It performs over 200 functions, including providing glucose for the brain, storing important nutrients like iron, creating blood, and helping us fight infections.
5. Twist It Up
Yoga postures to help the liver include any kind of twist, which gently massage the liver, and inversions, which can help flush the liver with fresh blood and lymph. Try a simple Supine Twist: Lay on your back and place your feet on the floor. Lift your bum up and shift it to the right an inch or two and put it down, then lift up your legs and allow them to rest over to the left side. Open your arms up into a T shape. You should have a natural inward curve in your lower back. Your knees can be roughly in line with the hips or a little lower. Relax your shoulders and look to the right if it’s comfortable for your neck. Breathe as deeply into your belly as you can. After 5–10 deep breaths, switch sides.
About the Author
Julie Peters (MA, E-RYT, YACEP) has been practicing yoga and meditation for 25 years and ran Ocean and Crow Yoga Studio in Vancouver, BC, for more than a decade. She has written two books: Secrets of the Eternal Moon Phase...
The Body
